This invention relates to creels for use with textile machinery such as tufting machines, warping machines or the like, and particularly to a creel wherein a group of a plurality of yarn strands are received from a like number of yarn cones and are fed through a single yarn guide tube to the textile machinery.
In textile machines, such as tufting machines, yarn is fed to the machine either directly from a creel or from a warper. A creel is a frame having an array of vertical and horizontal support members and including a multiplicity of yarn cone holders. A yarn cone is a spool about which yarn is wound. There are a multiplicity of yarn cone holders provided in horizontally and vertically disposed pairs, one cone holder of the pair mounting the active yarn cone and the other mounting a reserve or magazine cone used after the active cone is emptied. Conventionally, each cone holder pair has its own yarn guide tube through which yarn on each holder of the pair may be fed. A warper is a machine having a large spool, known in the art as a beam, on which yarn is wound and which subsequently supplies the yarn to a tufting machine.
In the art of tufting, generally a single strand of yarn is fed to each needle.
However, there are some occasions when it may be desirable to feed a plurality of fine yarn strands to each needle for providing tufted fabrics having unique patterns. Presently, when such need arises, in order to supply more than one yarn strand to a needle of a tufting machine, the yarn strands are cabled together onto a single yarn cone, or the reserve or magazine position is also used for mounting an active cone. Cabling involves winding the plural yarns onto a single yarn cone, but yarn manufacturers merchandise yarn cones with but a single yarn thereon. Thus, cabling requires unwinding the yarns from several cones and rewinding the yarns as a group onto multi-yarn cones. Cabling is therefore inconvenient and time consuming. Magazining, on the other hand, limits to two the number of yarn strands capable of being used and thus limits the pattern potential.
In co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 08/381,084 filed Jan. 31, 1995, of which the present application is a continuation-in-part, a group of yarn cone holders of a plurality of cone holders mounted in a vertical array have all of the guide tubes except the guide tube associated with the uppermost cone holder replaced by an eyelet. The yarn strand from a cone on a lowermost cone holder is directed through and by its associated eyelet to the next vertically adjacent or second eyelet and together with the yarn from the cone on the cone holder associated with the second eyelet is directed upwardly and through each subsequent eyelet and finally to and through the guide tube associated with the uppermost cone holder. All the yarns of the group including the yarn from the cone on the uppermost cone holder are guided by the guide tube to a header. Thus, all the yarns in a vertically disposed group can be fed together to a needle of a tufting machine or the like without cabling the yarns onto a yarn cone with the limitations thereof.
It may, however, sometimes be desirable to combine the yarns of a group of horizontally disposed yarn cones in a manner which also eliminates the need for cabling. If, however, the yarns of a conventional creel are combined horizontally, there would be a mass of yarns in the location where the creel operator is positioned to service the creel, thereby preventing easy creel servicing. It should be realized that the creel operator must change yarn cones as the cones become exhausted of yarn and must also connect the leading end of the yarn on the reserve or magazine cone to the trailing end of the active cone. Thus, conventionally on at least the cone holder support post closest to the operator, the wire frame of the yarn cone holders face toward the operator.